What the SEC's Pivot To Approve Spot Ether ETFs Means
On Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) surprised market watchers when it effectively approved the listing of spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on U.S. exchanges. Ether is the underlying cryptocurrency of the Ethereum crypto network, the second-largest such network after bitcoin by market capitalization.
What will be the impact of this landmark regulatory decision on the crypto market?
While Thursday's decision to approve spot ether ETF 19b-4 forms from issuers hoping to launch the funds was a major step forward, the associated products in the works from BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and others can't be listed quite yet.
That's because the S-1 registration filings submitted for these products must also be approved, which could take anywhere from weeks to months. According to a report from Galaxy Digital, July or August are the likely months when spot ether ETFs will begin trading.
The SEC's recent turnaround to approve spot ether ETF applications wasn't predicted by many before some major developments earlier this week. The SEC had asked spot ether ETF applicants to make alterations to their filings on an accelerated basis as the deadlines for the agency's decisions on them were approaching.
There appears to have been a reversal of policy behind the scenes at the SEC, which in the crypto industry view as political in nature. An unidentified source told the crypto publication The Block that the decision was «a completely unprecedented situation, which means it's entirely political,» due to the lack of internal coordination among SEC departments on the matter.
Earlier in May, former President Donald Trump in a speech courted the crypto industry that the Biden administration has moved to
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